Penn State Wrestling: Revisiting the best matches of 2021-2022 season

A look back at some of the best individual matches of the 2021-2022 Penn State Wrestling season

This is the first installment of an ongoing series Victory Bell Rings will bring you following the conclusion of every Nittany Lion wrestling season. As the title states, we’re going to take a look back at some of the best individual matches for Penn State Wrestling during the 2021-2022 National Championship season.

Obviously, we could simply rehash the five matches in the 2022 NCAA Wrestling Championships Finals where Roman Bravo-Young, Nick Lee, Carter Starocci, Aaron Brooks, and Max Dean took home titles and then call it a day. But that’s not what I’m going to do.

Instead, we’ll shine a spotlight on some other key matches which played out during the season and helped pave the way towards greatness.

So with that, let’s dive into the best matches of the 2021-2022 season for Penn State Wrestling

Match No. 1

Date: 12/03/2021
No. 2 Penn State at Penn

Donovon Ball (PSU) dec over Jesse Martinez (PENN) 11-4

The Nittany Lions hit the road down to Philadelphia early in the 2021-2022 season for a Friday night tune-up dual against Penn.

However, the flu bug had some different plans for Cael Sanderson and the Penn State wrestling squad as Roman Bravo-Young was out of the lineup and Nick Lee was clearly nowhere near to 100%. Rumors also swirled other grapplers would be out of the lineup.

The dual meet started at 125 where Baylor Shunk lost an 8-2 decision and Brandon Meredith, filling in for RBY, lost a major decision 10-2. Right out of the gates Penn State was down 7-0 to Penn.

Nick Lee then gutted out a 6-3 decision against a lesser foe and the Nittany Lions were finally on the board, albeit losing 7-3.

Penn State Wrestling and Penn then traded decisions in the next three matches as Beau Bartlett pulled out a win, Terrell Barraclough lost, and Creighton Edsell snuck by his opponent. Going into the final four matches of the evening, Penn held onto a narrow 10-9 lead.

But as everyone knows, the back end of the 2021-2022 Nittany Lion lineup were the hammers of the group. So no problem, right?

Well, Carter Starocci did what Carter Starocci typically does and completely dispatched his opponent by way of a major decision. Penn State then held its first lead of the evening (13-10), however, Aaron Brooks was not the next Nittany Lion who took to the mat as he was also under the weather.

Instead, it was sophomore Donovon Ball.

And the last time he hit the mat in a regular-season dual was back on 1/30/21 against Northwestern where he lost a major decision 12-3. Which was coincidentally his one and only appearance in a regular-season dual meet for Penn State Wrestling.

Would the inexperience or nerves get the better of Ball?

Heck no.

Donovon Ball looked at complete ease on the mat against his Penn foe. He notched two takedowns in the first period and, following an early escape in the second, opened up a commanding 6-1 lead. Ball continued to keep his foot on the gas by earning another takedown and was awarded two near-fall points to lead the match 10-1 going into the third period.

From there Donovon went into “coast mode” and cruised to the 11-4 decision victory. His first regular-season dual victory of his Penn State career. The Nittany Lions then pushed their lead to 16-10 on the night with the final two matches remaining.

And look, was Ball’s opponent (Jesse Martinez) a world-beater? Not at all. But knowing what we know now when looking back at this match, it was an incredible win.

Simply because Penn State did not have a single wrestler who could go at 285. Kerkvliet was either injured or also under the weather and Seth Nevills was still working to get back down to 285. Which meant the Nittany Lions were spotting Penn a forfeit in the final match either way. And had Ball not won his match, then Penn State would have lost the dual.

This means the Nittany Lions’ current winning streak of 28 straight dual meets wouldn’t be intact. And who knows, maybe a loss in this dual would have had other ripple effects during the season (#butterflyeffect).

It’s also worth noting that Donovon Ball came up clutch again in the home dual against Lehigh two days later. This time he bested a significantly better wrestler (AJ Burkhart) to win a 5-3 decision and Penn State again pulled out the narrow win by beating Lehigh 23-16.